Billie Holliday Sings ” Strange Fruit ” A Song Released in 1939 in Protest of the Tens of Thousands of Lynchings of Blacks in the South. Holiday who was one of the most famous women in America, received severe backlash from Politicians, Her own Record Label, and Radio Executives who were outraged at the Lyrics, and how realistically they portray the sadness and brutality of what a Lynching was.